Sentimental Value (2025)

R and I had to look up why.  I do not remember there being nudity in this movie, but apparently there was.  I now feel like I didn't watch the movie somehow.  Yeah, I know tha there is some language, but even the language that was used was used sparingly.  There is a couple in bed together, but you don't really see anything.  I do know that people are angry at each other.  The most traumatizing thing in the movie is discussion and recreation of a suicide that you don't see, but it is haunting hearing the noise of it.  

DIRECTOR:  Joachim Trier

Guys, I really wanted to make this my favorite one.  I saw that trailer and thought, "That's the movie that's going to make me cry for days."  I mean, just the fact that the trailer is cut the way it is, coupled with my painfully obvious Daddy-issues, how did this not completely destroy me?  What's funny is that I honestly think that Sentimental Value might have the greatest chance of getting the Academy Award.  It's a well-shot and well-acted movie that has a certain class to it.  That's the perfect combo for an Academy Award winner.

By the way, if I can knock this blog out in twenty minutes, I will be the most productive person alive.  I know that's impossible, but it is still something that is going to inspire me to write like the wind.

When I saw that Sentimental Value trailer, I thought there was going to be a lot more knock-down, drag-out moments in the film.  From moment one, you know that this is story is about the fallout of a selfish father figure who wants to reconnect with his successful daughters.  Gustav Borg is successful as an artsy-fartsy director (by the way, the gift that he gives his grandson is *chef's kiss!*)  But the girls have carved their own niches in the world.  I suppose, even if Nora has more respect for her craft, she is the most fragile member of the family.  But from Gustav's perspective, he's kind of coming in after the respective members of the family have already picked themselves up by their bootstraps and become something without his help.  Maybe I'm confusing "knock-down, drag-out" as I put it as simply subtlety.  So many times when I write these things, I often have to reach deeper than what the film says because I'm used to the movie telling what I have to think and unpack.  This is a movie that lets us experience family life and, sometimes, that family life isn't as necessarily obvious as movies make them out to be.  

Nora is sad from moment one.  Honestly, Nora needs a therapist, even if it means weakening her craft.  (I'm putting that in here.  I get the vibe that Trier is implying that Nora is so effective as an actress because she feels all of her pain on that stage.  Acting is scary to her, not fun.  It's the trauma.) I'm not saying that the other characters aren't sad.  I do think that Gustav is sad and I think that Agnes is numb.  But Nora's pain is the most expressive.  She almost torpedos a show because she is so afraid of what is in her that she needs to escape it.  If we break down this story from Nora's perspective (which I think is probably the smart move considering that I see her as the protagonist), her father's peace offering of giving her a bespoke script for what might be his final film comes across as really upsetting.  It seems like Nora's major desire with her father is a combination of normalness coupled with a genuine apology.  Gustav isn't that.  Gustav almost prides himself on the fact that he marches to the beat of his own drum.  He's so captured by his specific celebrity that he just can't be a father again.  I can see that being frustrating for Nora (and I'm writing like a therapist...) because she's offered an olive branch not from Gustav Borg, her father, but instead from Gustav Borg, famous director who appreciates her talent.  It's something that isn't necessarily worded that way, but I kind of get it.  It's why when Nora actually reads the script and sees the vulnerability in it, she changes her mind.

Agnes is maybe the hardest to unpack.  Agnes, seemingly, is the one who has it mostly together.  She has a kid (who happens to be on his screen too much and I can relate as I type away a blog).  Agnes is the bridge between these two warring parties.  She sees both her sister's misery when it comes to discussing their absentee father and also a sympathy for an artist who carved his own past.  She also sees that Gustav isn't ever malicious with his choices, but has grown so accustomed to a life of selfishness that he has no way to relate to people who are supposed to be his family.  From what I understood, Agnes is also the one who actually worked with Gustav on projects.  She's the one who sees how passionate he is about his work and the fact that he actually might be a real genius.  Still, I do love that Agnes draws the line where Erik is concerned.  Agnes, to me, is the most relatable character.  She's not toxic.  She, instead, relies on healthy boundaries.  While everyone celebrate's Agnes's childhood when she played Anna in a movie, it seems like Agnes views that time differently.  She cherishes it because she spent so much time with her father, but also hates that she wasn't ever herself.  The most formative moments of their relationship had Agnes play someone else.  On top of that, those moments were shared with everyone for artistic success as opposed to the moments for themselves.  There's a scene where Gustav plays with Erik and those moments seem authentic.  But he tarnishes that by equating Erik's natural screen chemistry with something that he can exploit.

I am kind of unpacking the relationship between Gustav and Rachel.  There are two toxic reads on why Gustav hires Rachel to play his daughter's part.  I hope I have the presence of mind and the time to write about both of them because I have this idea locked in now.  It seems like Gustav should shelve the movie until Nora is ready to hear him out.  But he doesn't do that.  Instead, he translates it into English so he can hire Rachel.  One of the things that's made a little more clear is that the version that Rachel is about to perform is a lesser version of the script because it is in English.  Does he hire Rachel to hurt Nora?  It kind of feels that way.  But it also feels like there's a mildly sexual relationship between Gustav and Rachel.  Yes, there is still a paternal relationship between the two because Rachel is metaphorically stepping into her daughter's shoes.  But that initial meeting wasn't based on a mutual relationship to begin with, but rather playing up the notion of fame.  After all, Gustav has a reputation of being a bit of a lethario, as seen when he's collapsed in the hospital bed.  But it is through rachel that we get Gustav's growth.  Rachel  grows and understands that this part was not meant for her and it's Gustav's reaction to her quitting that shows that he has grown out of his own stubbornness to a certain extent.

I guess what I've discovered, then, is that  this movie should be all I'm talking about.  I mean, I write a film blog about breaking down complex themes and this movie begs to be unpacked.  Still, as good as it is, I still can't give it my resounding endorsement because it didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would.  One of the dominant ideas of this blog is that I need to stop overhyping myself because that can only lead to misery.  Still, Sentimental Value does the job in spades and I'm just being weird.